Only US$500 000 has been raised for Zimbabwe to successfully conduct the seventh round of the Multiple Index Cluster Survey (MICS 2024) with the United Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the technical partner in the production of the survey appealing for more funds to meet the required amount of money.
The total budget has been costed to fetch US$2.5 million to be used for supply and procurement, training of enumerators and supervisors as well as the technical preparatory work for field operations.
The MICS plays a massive role in the collection of vital country data on a broad range of socio-economic indicators concerning children, women and men. Doing the enumeration are officers from the Zimbabwe Statistical Agency (ZIMSTAT).
Speaking to this publication on the sidelines of a Reporting on Child Rights Issues Guided by Evidence media workshop, UNICEF Zimbabwe Research and evaluation specialist Rumbidzai Tizora said they are appealing to the Zimbabwean government and other partners to provide the remaining US$2 million.
“So, this is a pamphlet that we have worked on. We had a breakfast meeting with our donors to raise funds. Currently, our budget sits at US$2.5 million. We’ve only managed to raise US$500,000 of that US$2.5 million.
“And we’re still appealing to the government to meet the balance of two million. Once they’re able to do that, then we can have our training in November, December, and then go into the field from January to March.
“So we’re still at the fundraising stage to answer your question. So we hope you as the media are going to put the word out on the value of the mix so that the government and our stakeholders can also fundraise for the survey,” she said.
Tizora explained the MICS report will help the Zimbabwean government in tracking its National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) while preparing it for the NDS2.
“So firstly, it’s for us, like I said, to be able to see where we are in terms of our SDG indicators, but it’s also to evaluate how as a country we have been performing in our National Development Strategy 1. “The government is finally working on formulating a National Development Strategy 2, so if we are able to collect data in 2024 and 2025, that data is going to be able to inform the development of the National Development Strategy 2.
“It will also help us to see where we are in terms of Agenda 2030, where we are in terms of our SDGs as a country,” she said.
In the absence of a national survey looking at social indicators in the country, the MICS 2019 report helped bridged the data gap for social indicators in the country as it was the most recent survey which helped push for policy changes such as the landmark raising of the age of consent to 18 years in the bid to minimize early child marriages and teenage pregnancies in the country.
Furthermore, through this MICS 2019 report which revealed the huge burden of adolescent pregnancies and large number of out-of-school adolescents who were pregnant, setting the tone for advocates and other organizations used culminating in the Education Amendment Act of 2020 which provided second chance to pregnant girls and adolescent mothers in Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, UNICEF Zimbabwe ad interim representative Dr Nicholas Alipui said it was important for journalists to amply issues that affect children especially at a time when 866,072 are children in Zimbabwe are said to have been affected. He said through evidence based and data journalism, the press can capture on the ground the community resilience amidst humanitarian crises.
